‘Yi, lass, but I’ve fun mi heart,’ and he again clasped his startled wife, and grew young in his caresses.

’I thought thaa kept thi luv for Captain, Moses.  But I durnd mind goin’ hawves wi’ th’ owd dog.  I awlus said that a chap as could luv a dog hed summat good abaat him somewhere—­and thaa’s luved Captain sum weel.’

’And others a deal too little, lass.  But all that’s o’er’—­and Moses burst into tears.

’Nay, lad—­forshure thaa’rt takken worse.  Well, I never seed thee cry afore.  Mun I ged thee a sooap o’ summat hot, thinksto? or mun I run for th’ doctor?’ and Mrs. Fletcher looked at her husband with a scared and troubled face.

‘Why, lass, I’ve been cryin’ all th’ day—­and that’s why I’ve bin so long away fro’ thee—­I didn’d want to scare thee.  I cornd help but cry.  I tell thee I’ve fun mi heart.’

And Moses again sobbed like a child.

That night, when his wife was in bed, and Captain slept soundly on the rug in front of the fire, Moses opened a safe that stood in the corner of the room, and, taking therefrom a bundle of deeds, selected one docketed ‘Crawshaw Fold.’  He then took from a drawer a number of agreements, and carefully drew forth those which gave him his hold on the Crawshaws.  These he enclosed with the deeds in a large blue envelope, and in a clerkly hand addressed them, with a note, to James Crawshaw.  After this he knelt down, and, as he prayed, Captain came and laid his head upon the clasped hands of his master.

* * * * *

‘Good-mornin’, Abram.  Hasto ought fresh daan i’ th’ village?’

‘Plenty, Enoch; hasto yerd naught?’

‘Nowe; I hevn’t bin daan fro’ th’ moors sin’ Sundo.’

‘Then yo’ve yerd naught abaat Moses Fletcher?’

‘Nowe; nor I durnd want.  When yo’ cornd yer owt good abaat a mon yo’d better yer naught at all.’

‘But I’ve summat good to tell thee abaat owd Moses.’

‘Nay, lad, I think nod.  Th’ Etheop cornd change his skin, nor th’ leopard his spots.’

‘But Moses hes ged’n aat o’ his skin, and changed it for a gradely good un and o’.’

‘And what abaat his spots, Abram?’

’Why, he’s weshed ’em all aat in th’ Green Fowd Lodge wi’ savin’ Oliver o’ Deaf Martha’s little un.’

Enoch whistled the first bar or two of an old tune, and stood silent in thought, and then exclaimed: 

‘Well, aw’v yerd o’ th’ seven wonders, but if what thaa sez is true, it mak’s th’ eighth.’

’Yi, owd mon, but there’s a bigger wonder nor that.  He’s gi’n Jim Crawshaw th’ deeds o’ Crawshaw Fowd, and towd him as he can pay him back when he geds th’ brass.’

‘Abram, thaa’rt gammin’.’

‘Jim Crawshaw towd me this mornin’, and I seed th’ deeds wi’ mi own een in his hond, and read th’ letter Moses bed written.’

At this moment Mr. Penrose came along the field-path, and joined the two men.  He, too, was strangely excited about Moses Fletcher, and, guessing what was uppermost in the minds and conversation of the two men, at once heartily joined them.